


First Impressions

by benjaminrussell



Series: Tales of Aciva [4]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: First Impressions, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24475168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/benjaminrussell/pseuds/benjaminrussell
Summary: Zara meets the members of her new adventuring party for the first time and has a few observations.
Series: Tales of Aciva [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1680022
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> For SauronsSade's tumblr prompt: "I'd love to know Zara's first impressions and thoughts of the (somehow still nameless) group of people she's with now".

### Nani

Zara studied the goliath woman across from her as they sat by their little campfire eating their evening meal. Nani, she’d said her name was. Well, she’d said several more names than that in typical goliath fashion, but Nani was what she went by so that’s what Zara would call her. Unsurprisingly she towered over Zara, but she didn’t make it a threatening gesture. In fact, the look she’d given Zara when Zara had come back from doing that stupid thing that was not to be mentioned was much more terrifying than Nani’s stature. Zara didn’t know for sure if Nani had a family, but that look convinced Zara that the older woman must have because it was the exact same expression she remembered Melissa (the local farmer friendly to the Order) having when her kid had done something disappointing. In fact, if she scoured her early memories, she thought she could remember her parents sporting the same one after Zara had thrown up after gorging herself on the fruit tarts her father had made and specifically told her not to touch.

Also she seemed just as awkward around other people as Zara was, and while that could have led to them being even worse with each other, they’d actually found some sort of shared camaraderie in the ‘not getting people’ thing. As well as the ‘people fear me’ thing.

### Cargeiros

Zara’s first thought on meeting Cargeiros was ‘thief’ – stereotypical but not untrue, and she wasn’t as bothered by his profession (former profession?) as some people would be. When her way of life skirted the line between legal and illegal potentially only depending on where she happened to be at the time, and was frowned upon by most folks, she was less inclined to judge others in similar situations. Now if she saw him stealing from people who couldn’t afford it, then she might have words.

Zara was idly curious where he’d come from and what led him to join up with a group of adventurers, but she was unlikely to say anything about it unless someone else brought it up.

### Celysa

Zara was curious about Celysa and Barnes’ relationship, because they obviously knew each other but seemed like rather different people. Celysa’s bubbly (Zara wasn’t sure that was quite the right word, but she couldn’t put her finger on a better one) nature was refreshing and seemed at odds with Barnes’ stoic expression. Being a blood hunter naturally led one to be more serious and focused, so honestly Zara was kind of looking forward to getting to know the other young woman better.

After the whole thing with the fire cult, then she felt guilty. Celysa clearly had deep seated trauma to do with fire, and Zara was probably pushing close to triggering her over it every time they were in a fight. Sure, she could not use her Rite, but it seemed unwise to not make use of one of her most powerful abilities when there was a potential for it to be life or death. She’d just have to dedicate herself even more to developing her blood hunter abilities so she could learn how to activate a different rite that was less traumatic.

### Barnes

Barnes seemed very much like a typical soldier at first glance, and even when their new group had spent a little time together, that was still the case. He clearly knew what he was doing, and had been around a while, even if he’d only recently turned to the adventuring side of the profession rather than mercenary work. Zara respected that. He also knew how to interact with the various people in authority that they had to deal with, which she was glad for because, needless to say, that wasn’t one of her strong points. Having another fighter along was also welcome, because while she knew perfectly well that Nani could hold her own in a fight, she was a druid and her strengths were unsurprisingly more magic focused.


End file.
